Money sent to Swiss bank looting from local banks: BNP

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Dhaka, June 30: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Friday accused the ruling party people for siphoning off money looted from local banks to Swiss banks.

BNP came up with the accusation referring to media reports published on Friday that amount of depositing money from Bangladesh in Swiss banks had increased in 2016 compared to 2015 whereas amount of depositing money in Swiss banks from other countries in the world, including India had decreased.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a news briefing at the party central office said the Awami League leaders had smuggled money of corruption and looting to Swiss banks.

He said the finance minister on Thursday, in parliament, termed the country’s banking sector’s condition as very ‘vulnerable.’

Everybody believes that the huge money looted from banks was smuggled to the Swiss banks, Rizvi continued.

He said ‘ruling party’s top brasses’ were involved into siphoning off, and if not so, the finance minister would not be ‘helpless’ to take action against them.

Referring to newspaper reports, Rizvi said the amount of money deposited by Bangladeshis into Swiss banks in 2016 stood at 66.10 crore Swiss franc which was equivalent to Tk 5,685 crore, while the amount of deposited money from Bangladesh in Swiss banks in 2015 was nearly 55 crore Swiss franc which was equivalent to Tk 4,730 crore.

Swiss National Bank (SNB), central bank of Switzerland, on Thursday published an annual report on ‘Banks in Switzerland 2016’, Rizvi said, adding that the information of money deposited from Bangladesh has been received from the SNB annual report.